The present disclosure is related to the field of biopotential transduction. More specifically, the present disclosure is related to a biopotential microelectrode with motion artifact rejection.
Electrodes applied to the skin of a patient are commonly employed to non-invasively obtain biopotential signals that are useful in determining a physiological condition or functioning of a patient. The anatomy of mammalian skin presents a high electrical impendence. This electrical impedance decreases the magnitude and the signal to noise ratio of the biopotential signal obtained by the electrode. It is common to abrade the skin and/or apply electrolytic gel to skin before using the electrode to improve the electrical characteristics of the signal.
An alternative to applying an electrolytic gel is to form spikes on the electrode that penetrate the outer layer of the skin which reduce the impedance of the electrode-skin interface. However, even after improving the electrical characteristics of the electrode-skin interface, motion artifacts are a significant source of error in an acquired biopotential signal. Motion artifacts are caused by motion of the patient, the electrode, or the wire that transmits the acquired biopotential signal back to a signal processor.